Wireless N Questions

I'll take a look at that when I get home, thanks for the tip, and I do realize it's pre-N but boosted range is what I'm looking for and faster transmitting between network via wireless.

I'd advise against the purchase. N is barely even in draft form yet and stuff you buy now will likely not work with the final standard.

To take full advantage of 'N' all your equipment needs to be N. Since it's not a final standard yet, all the equipment also should be from the same vendor using the same 'preN' 'standards.'

from all reports if you do this you will get noticably better range and speed. this said, if it's just for internet sharing, the extra speed will not be noticable as your current connection is likely already faster than your internet link.

Lastly, you mentioned you have a wrt54g. What hardware revision is it? Version2 through Version4 are some of the best routers made in my opinion. You can easily flash to some amazing firmware (dd-wrt, which I praise here: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_wireless&message.id=26320). Version 1s will upgrade as well though their internal CPU is slower. Version5 and 6 have reduced memory and can only be flashed to smaller version of dd-wrt.

Still, before replacing your router with expensive N equipment, try DD-WRT (especially if you have a wrt54g version 4 or lower). You'll get an amazing feature set and a way to boost the transmit power of your current router.

Post back with any questions

if you really need the internal network speed premium and can't go wired then the preN stuff may indeed be the way to go.

range can just as easily be done by boosting the xmit power a bit and replacing the stock antennas with some 7db omnis (linksys actually sells branded ones for this purpose). higher performing client cards and antennas will also help significantly. normally all this would cost more money but if you're considering replacing all the equipment anyway it kinda becomes a wash.

as long as you do have a wrt54g though you really should consider flashing it to the dd-wrt firmware ... it's almost a waste not to :)

Yea, the range is more like what I want, it's my personal network so I could just hook up a cable if need be to transfer stuff faster and the money is an issue.


So, when I get home, I'm going to take a look at that firmware, see how that does for my range ;)

Though, my WRT54G seems to be pretty decent on range as it is, sometimes signal gets low even when I'm 30ft away in my bedroom and the signal going through 2 walls.

Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it.

find out what model of wrt54g it is. while they can still be upgraded the newer v5 and v6 models are much more of a pain to get flashed initially.

assuming you go with dd-wrt, it says that boosting power from 28mw to 70mw should be safe for most users. going higher and it might be a good idea to install some heatsinks inside the router. going even higher and you just get more noise than usable signal.

yeah, default it 28. V2s are especially nice. Several of them have double the ram of the normal units (linksys was using wrt54gs parts) though it takes some extra effort and care to activate.

I think mine is fairly easy to flash, I think it's a v2, and i'll just boost it double what it's set at right now, assuming it's not already above 50

Mine is actually a V3

So HERE I GO!

good luck. please read and follow all instructions. if in doubt, wait till you get an answer.

You likely want V23 SP2 found here:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/down.php?path=downloads%2Fdd-wrt.v23+SP2/

Again, follow all instructions. Additionally the following advice may help:

1) do a hard reset of your router (press reset button for 10 seconds or so) to reset factory defaults prior to flash

2) Use the 'generic' distributions -- other specific distributions are not for flashing from the web interface which is what you'll be doing. Easiest thing to do is just to grab the zip files and not even go to the sub-directories in the above link. The zip files contain all the variations for a given package. The bin file labeled 'generic' within the zip file is the only one you will use.

3)For the flash from linksys to dd-wrt on a v3, use the mini package which should be here:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/down.php?path=downloads%2Fdd-wrt.v23%20SP2%2F&download=dd-wrt.v23_sp2_mini.zip

Extract the dd-wrt.v23_mini_generic.bin file and use the web interface on the router to upgrade the firmware to it.

4) Do another hard reset /factory defaults to the router by holding down the reset button for 10 or so seconds.

5) Log into the router again (root / admin). At this point you should be running dd-wrt. You can now upgrade to other package (like standard or vpn) via the web interface. get the zip file from the first link I posted for the package you want (assuming you don't want to stay with mini) and use the web interface to flash to the generic bin inside the zip

I was exhausted trying to figure it out earlier and actually fell asleep on the floor, and am looking at it now, and it seems the default root > admin is working for me to login.


So, time to hook everything back up to the router and see how it goes...

Unfortunately I think I killed my router.

I couldnt find the instructions and did not reset to factory defaults before I updated the firmware. Now I cannot log in as the admin.

Also, I never installed the mini, just installed with the standard.bin

When I saw your last post, I had already flashed it, now the factory defaults reset button doesnt work.

Message Edited by B_Coppins on 09-27-2006 11:27 PM